Princess Carries FTW!
by Little Miss Independence
Summary: A collection of snippets in no particular order, focusing on our heroes. Yaoi and crack are in abundance here. Please leave your sanity at the door. Thank you.


_**I'm bored, okay? I'm bored and I want to write Tiger and Bunny snippets.**_

_**For those who are wondering what this is, it's basically a snippet dump related to Tiger & Bunny. They don't take place in chronological order—hell, I don't even think they take place in the same universe! There's a lot of crack, crossovers and shippy weird stuff here, too, so be warned.**_

_**Onwards!**_

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><p><strong>Princess Carries FTW!<strong>

_The First Collection_

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><p><strong>Help from Above<strong>

Barnaby had no idea how it happened, but he had fallen in love with Kotetsu.

And he had no idea how to act on it, either, or how to confess.

Clearly, Cupid had it in for him. Or his arrow had hit the wrong person and it was supposed to hit someone else who had a better chance with the older man. Or something.

It wasn't like he was straight, or homosexual, or…well, anything, really. But he had spent twenty years, at the very least, hunting for his parents' murderer, and the last time he checked, revenge was not all that conducive towards falling in love.

Cupid—or Eros—was probably laughing at him from Mt. Olympus.

So, here he was, standing in front of the shop, having second thoughts about all this. What was he thinking, Kotetsu would probably reject him—kindly, of course, he was that kind of person—but reject him nonetheless and he wouldn't be able to see him in the same way again and they wouldn't be friends anymore and—

"You know, if you stand there all day, you won't get anything done," a calm, feminine voice remarked, snapping him back to reality.

He blinked at the young woman, with long brown hair and a radiant smile. "I'm well aware of that, thank you," he replied.

The woman just laughed, then walked on over to her. "So, why are you here, anyway?" she asked, in a tone that implied she already knew. "Looking for a gift for your special someone?"

"No, I'm only browsing," he answered, though he felt a blush spreading across his cheeks. "I don't have a 'special someone' right now."

She laughed again, playfully punching him on the shoulder like they were old friends. "You're blushing~," she teased. "Come inside, I'll help you pick out the perfect gift for your friend."

Before he could even protest anything, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him inside, singing something about love and how it could melt even the coldest of hearts, though it needed the help of an unholy amount of chocolate to do so. And for that, she dragged him all the way to the aisle stocked with said unholy amount of chocolate.

"I don't know if he'll appreciate it, actually," he managed to say, staring at the many, many chocolates surrounding him and the woman. "I think he prefers mayonnaise."

"Everyone loves chocolates," the woman assured him. "I'm sure your friend will love it if you give him some!"

"How would you know?" he asked.

She smiled in reply, the kind that showed she knew much more than she was letting on. "Let's just say I have an instinct for these sorts of things," she replied, then returned her attention to the chocolates, pointing towards a particular (and expensive-looking) brand of chocolate. "How about this one? He'll definitely like it!"

"Really?"

The woman grinned. "Really," she confirmed. "Don't doubt a woman's instinct for these kinds of things."

So he came strolling out of the store with a bag of very expensive chocolates, all wrapped in a pink heart-shaped box, the woman walking behind him.

"So who are these really for?" she asked him as they passed by a park.

"A friend," he vaguely answered.

She shook her head. "You know," she murmured, so softly that he almost couldn't hear her, "it's okay to tell me. I won't ever tell anyone if that's what you're worried about, I promise."

He blinked at her, then, tentatively, "He and I…we've been friends for a while."

"Go on."

He breathed in deeply. "However, it's only recently that I've realized that my feelings for him have started to run deeper than friendship. I'm afraid that, if I confess, he might reject me, and our relationship won't be the same. I don't want to risk that."

"But what if it's worth taking the risk?" she asked, so suddenly that he snapped his head to look at her. "What if, by some insane coincidence, he likes you as well? You should make the first move, since your friend seems rather dense when it comes to love. Trust me, I've seen it before."

He stared at her for a moment, then smiled somewhat. "Thank you for the advice…" he trailed off, realizing that despite having spent the better part of an afternoon with her, he hadn't yet learned her name.

The woman smiled mysteriously. "Tomoe," she replied. "My name is Tomoe…but I don't know if you'll keep that in mind. Just take care of my husband for me, okay? He needs the company."

And with that, the wind picked up, and the woman—_Tomoe_—dissolved into thousands of flower petals, carried off into heaven.

He stared, rubbed at his eyes, and pinched his arm, to no avail.

That day, when Kotetsu received his box of chocolates and squealed and threw his arms around him to cover him in kisses (impulsive idiot), Barnaby wondered if Tomoe was watching over them and giving them her blessing from up above.

_Up above, Tomoe Kaburagi, nee Amamiya, smiled happily as Flonne cheered beside her, feeling a wave of relief for her husband and the person he loved, and giggling like an idiot because, finally, she had her fix again!_

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><p><strong>The Road To Redemption<strong>

The road to redemption is a long and rocky one. Edward knows this all too well, having spent a long while in prison.

The first few years, he didn't even consider redemption. Those years were spent nursing a grudge against his former friend Ivan, letting it grow into a horrifying black wart on his soul that consumed him, to the point where revenge was all he could think about.

Before, he was sure nothing could've made him ever forgive him, for abandoning him when he needed him most.

Now...well, he's different now. Things have been different for him, since the instant Ivan transformed into him and stepped between him and the murderous vigilante.

The road to redemption is a long and rocky one, with _spikes_for good measure. Edward knows this far too well.

Still, he tries his best to avoid the spikes and keep on walking on that road. In a year and six months, he's become something of a role model to those who really, truly want to fix themselves, to rise up from the ashes. He helps out around the prison, tutors those who never had the chance to learn, gives others a listening ear.

The problem is, one year and six months of helping out doesn't exactly make up for years of hatred, nor does it chase away the image of the woman he accidentally shot. Sometimes he doesn't know if he'll ever be redeemed, despite his best efforts to do so. Nothing can erase what he's done to the nameless woman and to Ivan, ever.

But, the boy-no, _man_ himself doesn't seem to mind, from the way he always visits the prison just to talk to him. When it comes to visiting Edward, Ivan is like clockwork, never missing a week to stop by, even if he has a busy schedule. He's found himself looking forward to whenever he visits, because prison is still _prison_, and no amount of niceness on everyone's part is going to change the fact that they're going to be sleeping behind iron bars when night falls.

But Ivan...well. When he's talking with him, he feels like he isn't in prison, like they're back at the Academy and chatting away about random topics. Like before, he offers a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a wry laugh, whatever fits the situation at hand. And like before, Ivan talks his ear off.

This visit is no different. Their first topic is some magical girl anime called Puella Magi Madoka Magica, something he's excited about watching for the first time. Edward just chuckles when he sees the magazine Ivan holds up, thinks the dresses are a little frilly, but the cat-thing does look rather cute. (A few weeks later, he and Ivan are regretting ever watching that anime, or thinking Kyuubey was cute.)

Somehow, it drifts from magical girls and cute mascots to speculations on the exact nature of Tiger and Barnaby's relationship, and just what were they up to while they were off for a year. Ivan comes up with some interesting theories ("Maybe they've been traveling the world!" he excitedly says, his hands flailing about), but it's Edward who cracks them both up with "Or maybe they've been meeting up secretly in Oriental Town every weekend for a little..._relaxation_."

It takes a while for any one of them to manage to gather his breath enough to speak, and somehow the topic drifts from Ivan's fellow heroes' love affair (because the way they act around each other, there is no other reason for that) to Edward. Of course he's nervous for his upcoming parole hearing, they should get a hot dog at old Roy's if he gets out, did I tell you about this food fight yesterday, and things like that.

Time flies by, and soon enough Ivan has to go again. They bid each other goodbye, he promises to visit again, but Edward knows he doesn't have to, he's just like clockwork when it comes to visiting him.

The road to redemption is a long, rocky, spiky one, with traps laid out to catch those not paying attention. Edward knows this all too well.

But for Ivan, he'll try his best.

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><p><strong>Let's Get Married<strong>

He has no idea how it happened, but somehow, at some point, Barnaby's realized that he and Kotetsu are far too much like an old married couple. Minus the "old married couple" part, of course.

The first hint he gets is when Kotetsu shows up, in his flat, with a bag of groceries in one hand and a bowl of homemade fried rice in the other.

The second comes the next morning, when he wakes up and tries to go outside. Unfortunately, he doesn't get very far when the old man pulls him into the kitchen and nags him into eating his food. (Thankfully the fried rice doesn't taste terrible, despite being last night's leftovers.)

The third is when someone hits on him on the way to work. The cheesy pick-up line's only halfway out the girl's mouth when Kotetsu looms over her with a very stern expression on his face. He has no idea how, but she quickly lets out an "eek!", apologizes for not having known he liked men (_what?_) and scurries off.

The fourth is when he feels so tired after a whole day's work, and he falls asleep on his lap. Hours later, he wakes up to Kotetsu's hand in his hair.

"Well, I couldn't help it! You look so cute when you're asleep, Bunny," he teases later on.

"As opposed to when I'm awake?" he dryly asks.

"...pretty much, yeah."

He rolls his eyes and gets back to work, but can't help the blush that spreads across his face.

_God_, they're like an old married couple.

Minus the "old married couple" part, anyway.

* * *

><p><strong>Keep Holding On<strong>

Kotetsu sits in the waiting room, doing nothing but...well, wait. And regret.

_Dammit, Bunny._

That's the thought that keeps running around his mind like half-crazed bunnies (pun intended), among other thoughts like _Oh, god, why him?_, _No, no, no, don't die on me_, _Why did I let him talk me into it?_and other such things like that.

He looks up, sees nothing but the drab white that seems ever so present in hospitals everywhere. Well, not exactly nothing-there's a steady trickle of nurses and doctors rushing in and out of the room where Bunny is in.

Finally, after what seems like days (but is actually hours) and a restful sleep, a doctor walks over, pokes him awake and tells him the news he's been waiting to hear.

"He's awake."

Those two words are enough to make him activate his Hundred Power and rush all the way to the room where Bunny's staying, and it takes all of his self-restraint to keep himself from jumping the poor kid.

Not that he could do that, since there are machines beeping mechanically away, a stern-looking doctor glaring at him, and _Bunny_, lying on the bed and glaring at him as well.

And for the first time since everything's happened, Kotetsu breaks into a huge grin and laughs.

"Hey, Bunny-chan~," he teases.

"Don't call me Bunny," his partner replies, his voice sounding hoarse and tired from all the drugs and painkillers, but happy and content.

* * *

><p><strong>Birthday Presents<strong>

"…Kotetsu, did you really just go to the trouble of _wrapping yourself in a box_?"

"Well, I thought long and hard about your birthday present, so I decided _I_ should be your gift! Like it?"

"First, get that ridiculous bow off your neck. Second, you. Me. My bedroom. Now."

…He had to do this kind of thing more often. It got him more results than anything else ever could.

* * *

><p><strong>Tsundere Magnet<strong>

It had started out as a pretty weird day for Kotetsu, and by his standards, that was saying quite a lot. This was Sternbild they were talking about, after all. Strange liked to happen a lot.

The first thing that happened was when he strolled into work, then sat down in the cubicle next to Bunny's, same as ever. What wasn't, however, was when he pushed a box of chocolates towards him.

"I didn't like the taste," his partner had said when he asked about it. Kotetsu did notice the tomato-red blush that spread across Bunny's face, but simply attributed it to the warm temperature in the room.

The second was when Karina tripped into his arms, for some reason. He had no idea how she did it, because there was nothing in her way that could possibly trip her up, nor did he know why she suddenly blushed, stuttered, called him an idiot and then ran off.

And then there was the white-haired kid that had tried to haul a NEXT off for "experiments", or something. When he came within his vicinity, the boy had somehow done a 180-degree turn from "boastful, totally evil mad scientist" Overlord to "blushing, stuttering but still trying to keep up his evil mad scientist reputation" Overlord.

When he rescued him, the poor kid seemed so red that he'd given him a chocolate from the box Bunny had given him earlier. When he left, some short girl with a weird tail and horns (wait, what?) had jumped him and was now teasing him over...something.

After that, he ran afoul of some ten-year-old girl with long blonde hair shouting about how she was free, _free to take over Sternbild using her puppets and feed on those foolish enough to enjoy Twilight, ahahahaha!_When he got her out of the grip of some rabid Twilight fans, she had done the same thing as the boy from before and blushed, though the stutter was somewhat subdued.

She'd protested she was completely, totally evil, _really_, why wouldn't anyone believe her even as she laughed evilly and threatened to crush them under her heel, but the green-haired teenaged girl that had caught up with them had sighed, patted her on the head then said, "Master is only going through a mid-life crisis."

He wondered just how a ten-year-old girl could go through a mid-life crisis.

And then, while he was walking on the sidewalk, some kid with blue hair and a funny hairstyle wearing no shirt had suddenly pushed a bouquet of (crushed) roses on him, blushing and muttering something about "she made me do it", and pointing towards a blonde girl pumping her fist into the air. Then he ran off, yelling something about being an evil Overlord.

After that little encounter, Kotetsu had thought his day couldn't get any weirder. Then he ran across a girl with pink hair and a boy with a sword on his back. The girl had blushed as well (he was starting to see a pattern here) and pointed at him, yelling something about "KIDNAPPER!" The boy had managed to calm her down, though the whip she pulled out was rather disturbing, so he did have to step in.

She apologized later in the precinct, and offered him a (crushed) box of cookies. He accepted, because a crushed box of cookies was still a box of cookies. Just...well, squashed, but still edible. The boy seemed used to it.

And then, after that, some girl with black hair in twin tails (and a lot of zettai ryouiki, but he only knew that because of Kaede) and her white-haired companion, who, thankfully, didn't seem to have a thing for superheroes, NEXTs or experiments. The girl pushed a picnic basket towards him and stammered out an "I didn't come all the way here to give this to you, no way!"

He had blinked at her for a moment, then remembered his identity was public now. Still, it didn't quite explain what happened when he thanked her, then looked up and locked gazes with her companion, who looked confused for a moment and then went "Oh", grabbed the girl and dragged her off.

After that, he came across a man with bushy eyebrows, who proceeded to act somewhat like Bunny had earlier and push a box of chocolates towards him, sputtering something about "I didn't like the taste, now bugger off!"

He had to ask someone what "bugger" meant, someday.

And then there was that girl with another girl, who, for some reason, was soaking wet. The girl (who happened to be dry) had blushed, then turned away from him and hurried off in the other direction, along with the girl who was soaking wet. He was sure he caught a "You were _blushing!_" from the wet girl.

Plus there was the new prosecutor-what was her name again? Francesca?-who also carried around a whip. In court, she was practically tearing into him for all the property damage he caused, but outside, he could swear he saw the tiniest hint of a blush on her face as they chatted. He didn't get anything from her, though, besides an "I hope I never have to see your face in court again!"

There was also that strange woman in a rather attractive gown. She had blushed around him, but it seemed to have been somewhat mitigated by the fact that she was bickering with another redhead, towards whom she was blushing all the more. Ah, love.

When he finally got home and called up Kaede to tell her about his day, she had just "tsk"-ed and told him that he was some sort of tsundere magnet before launching into a rant about how he just seemed to _attract_those sorts of people, and really, it was starting to get annoying, was it some sort of NEXT power that he just hadn't told her about yet?

He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but there was something familiar about that term. Ivan seemed to use it a lot, especially when referring to girls in video games.

He'd ask him in the morning. Right now, all he wanted to do after a strange day was sleep.

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><p><strong>Mistaken Identities<strong>

Kotetsu stared at the young, spiky-haired man who had shouted "YOU?" and pointed at him, trying to recall where he had seen him before. He came up with a blank.

"Er…me?"

_Somewhere else in Sternbild, Barnaby was trying to block the flow of blood from his nose, averting his gaze from the new, white-haired prosecutor and trying to push the image of Kotetsu in that exact same outfit out of his mind._

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><p><strong>Stargazing<strong>

"The stars are bright tonight," Kotetsu remarked. "Kind of makes you forget about fines, right?"

Barnaby rolled his eyes, muttering something dark about "impulsive idiots who don't look where they're going", but nevertheless looked up as well.

His partner was right, which was a bit of a shock. He had never really paid attention to the stars before, having been obsessed with tracking down his parents' murderer, but now that everything was done and they were taking a vacation in the countryside (thank God they were second-league heroes now, because that meant they had more time for that), he saw that they twinkled and sparkled, the way they didn't in the city.

He didn't know why that was so important, though.

Kotetsu laughed, beside him. "You know about the constell—constar—corsta—those shapes that stars make sometimes, right?" he asked.

He sighed. "It's constellations, and _yes_, I do know about them," he answered.

The older man smiled, then pointed up at the sky, his fingers tracing one of the constellations that shone brightest.

"When I was younger, Aniki and I used to come out here just to trace the shapes of all the stars up here," he murmured. "I forget the names now, but I know this one's called Orion."

"The Hunter," Barnaby recalled. "It's one of the most recognizable constellations. The Greeks said Orion was a hunter of gigantic proportions during ancient times, that when he died while fighting a scorpion, the gods raised him and it to the skies."

"Something like that," Kotetsu absentmindedly remarked. "We used to make a contest out of it. Whoever found it first had to do the other's chores for the night. I lost a lot."

He chuckled, a smile playing on his lips. "A night like this…it brings back memories."

Barnaby felt his heart start pounding against his chest, for some reason. "I've never been stargazing before," he admitted. "I was far too busy for it."

"You're making up for it now," Kotetsu observed, that soft smile still on his face. "You know, we should do this more often."

He wanted to. He wanted to, so badly, if it meant he'd spend just a few hours alone with him, talk about the silly things in life and just not mind the world around them.

But he didn't say a word, simply followed his finger and traced the Hunter as well.

His heart thudded against his chest.

The stars were bright tonight.

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><p><strong>My Heroes (by Scarf-tan)<strong>

When I was younger, I didn't really like heroes.

I know, I know, not what you expected from somebody who's always appearing on Hero TV and getting herself saved from various threats by the heroes. But it's true.

I wasn't prejudiced against them or anything. I mean, some of my closest friends were NEXTs, and I certainly enjoyed their company as compared to some of my schoolmates. I just didn't really like the way everyone else seemed to love the heroes, in a way that overshadowed some of the more important things in life. Like make-up and boys.

…Yeah, I had my priorities in order when I was a teenager. But when I moved to Sternbild for college, things changed. Big-time.

I don't know if I'm some sort of NEXT myself, just one that attracts bad luck wherever she goes, but it seems like everything I do gets interrupted by some kind of attack that leaves me in the clutches of some criminal, and everywhere I go things happen and I'm right in the thick of it. If it is a NEXT power, then not only is it late, but it's really inconvenient. I'm just an ordinary citizen trying to get along here, I'm not trying to take over the world or anything! I mean, I've been rescued so many times it's become a part of my weekly routine.

Of course I wasn't so calm towards it when it first happened. I freaked out, yeah, and had to be rescued by a hero—Wild Tiger, a year before he moved to Apollon Media. I thought, after he carried me to safety, that the incident there would be the first and last time I'd be involved in something like that. Boy, was I wrong.

That kick-started my "career", if you could call it that, of being an extra on Hero TV. My family's concerned for my safety, of course, but for the most part, I guess I've gotten used to it. In fact, I've been rescued so many times by the heroes that I've started to think of them as acquaintances of sorts. I've even started collecting their merchandise—even Rock Bison's, because he's saved me at least twice before, they just don't show it all that much. The one who has the most merchandise in my collection is Wild Tiger, of course, because he was the one who carried me to safety first.

So, yeah. That's how I see things these days. Funny how being a regular victim changes your perception of things, huh? I should go now, I've got a karate lesson to get to.

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><p><strong>Dreams<strong>

Up until now, all Barnaby's ever dreamt of is the past.

_He dreamed of fire, of gunshots and screams and childhoods ripped away from him in one night. He dreamed of half-remembered memories, seen through a haze that obscures details from him. He dreamed of faces covered in flames, of sinister laughter ringing through his ears, of dark, dark days and lonely, lonely nights by himself._

He barely ever dreams of the present.

_He dreams of hugs, of kisses, of the scent of a tiger who never gives up. He dreams of laughter and wine, of bad times and good times. He dreams of the girl that idolizes him, of the man that cares for him, of the family that he's only now become part of._

This is the first time he's ever dreamt of the future.

_He dreams of them, sitting at a desk. His tiger's hair is streaked with grey, and his is pulled back into a ponytail. They're laughing together about a story that he can't quite remember, laughing until there are tears in their eyes, and all this time he's realized that there are very few people in the world that can make him as happy as this. He dreams of their years together, of anniversaries yet to come and laughter to be shared. He dreams of their days spent underneath the sun, of nights spent in each other's arms. He dreams of the day when they go together, when he carries him off to the sunset and they're young again, arguing like old times over the simplest of things._

When Barnaby wakes up, he realizes that the future is still ahead of him. And he smiles, laughs and greets the day like he never has before.

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><p><em><strong>My god, that was long. And shippy. Some explanations for each snippet:<strong>_

_**Help from Above is something I thought of while viewing fanart of Tomoe and Kotetsu. I like the idea of Tomoe pushing Bunny towards him, because well, those two really need a push in the right direction, and who better than her? It was inspired by a particular scene of Angel!Tomoe pushing Bunny, quite literally, towards Kotetsu, by Torre del Babel (I think?) on Tumblr. You're awesome.**_

_**The next three snippets (Road to Redemption, Let's Get Married and Keep Holding On) come from the prompt me meme that I posted on my fic comm a while ago. I sort of just wanted to put them up here as well.**_

_**Birthday Presents is something I whipped up on the fly, and an advanced birthday present for all the Bunnies out there as well. Hope you all like it~**_

_**Tsundere Magnet, also known by N-Not Doing This For You, also comes from my fic comm, though it wasn't originally a snippet. See if you can spot all the tsunderes who are attracted to Kotetsu!**_

_**Mistaken Identities is based off of the fact that Kotetsu and Godot, from Ace Attorney, look a lot like each other. Just ask the fandom.**_

_**Stargazing came forth because of a line on the first opening, "Orion wo Nazoru". I am a shippy little terror, yes.**_

_**My Heroes is what I imagine to be Scarf-tan's essay on the things that regularly happen to her. As you can see, she's adopted a zen attitude towards it. I don't know whether to be pleased or scared that this snippet flowed out rather easily.**_

_**Dreams almost made me cry while writing it. I also tried something new with this one, as you can see. I may do things in that style again sometime soon.**_

_**Also, in case you didn't notice, yes, I do have a thing for Kotetsu/Barnaby. And yes, I've only now noticed that a lot of these snippets take place from Bunny's point of view. Maybe next time I'll be more varied...**_

_**Effy out!**_


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